Women’s lax falls to Virginia
After falling behind by two goals at intermission, No. 3 Duke (9-2) was unable to make up the deficit in a low-scoring second half as the Blue Devils dropped a critical ACC game to No. 5 Virginia, 8-7. The two teams combined for just five goals after halftime, and Duke’s late rally—the Blue Devils scored with 8:03 and 3:35 left to trim the Cavaliers’ lead to a single goal—came up just short.
Virginia (7-3) can thank its goalie, Lauren Benner, for preserving its ACC regular-season title hopes. Benner faced 20 total shots and made seven saves, while Duke’s netminder, Kaitlin Gaiss, recorded only three stops.
Duke dominated most other statistical categories, except for one crucial area: the faceoff circle. The Cavaliers controlled 11 draws compared to the Blue Devils’ five, giving Virginia more possessions and opportunities to threaten the Duke goal.
The Blue Devils were led in scoring by Sarah Bullard, Kim Wenger and Lindsay Gilbride, who each scored twice against the Cavaliers.
Duke Tennis goes undefeated
It was a good weekend for both the men’s and women’s tennis teams, as the men went 3-0 on a busy road trip while the ladies maintained control of the ACC standings with dominating wins over Maryland and Boston College.
The Duke men (9-5, 2-0 in the ACC), playing without their injured star, Henrique Cunha, took on both Harvard and Boston College in New England Friday and hardly broke a sweat. The Blue Devils eased past the Crimson, 4-0, and used that momentum in a 6-1 demolition of the Eagles.
“It was a great day on the courts for us [Friday],” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “Our energy and focus was solid from start to finish, and we took care of business.”
Duke had a single day off before heading down the coast to College Park, Md., to face the Terrapins, and the Blue Devils struggled only slightly en route to a 5-2 win behind singles victories from Dylan Arnould, Luke Marchese and Jared Pinsky.
The women’s squad had even less trouble than its male counterpart over the weekend. In Saturday’s crushing defeat of Maryland at Ambler Tennis Stadium, Duke won all three doubles matches and did not drop even one set in singles play in the 7-0 victory.
And Sunday, the Blue Devils (15-2, 3-0) put together a similarly complete performance and again swept a conference rival with another 7-0 win over the Eagles. In that dual match, senior Amanda Granson recorded her 100th career singles victory, and Duke won every set played once again.
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